Dang! Shaonan Wang looked at the computer screen in disbelief. Her ETS score report showed that she had scored 15/30 on the speaking section, but her requirement was to score at least 26 points on this section. After careful analysis of her score report, Shaonan discovered that she had vocabulary, grammar, word stress, intonation, and pausing problems during her speech. Therefore, she started to search for and eventually found an Online TOEFL Course that would offer help in these five areas so that she could improve her speaking score.
First, her Online TOEFL Course called “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT offered her help with vocabulary development. The first few lessons taught her how to understand the meaning of new words by using eight specific guessing strategies. Furthermore, lessons 3, 4, 5, 6 helped her to master more than 1,700 TOEFL words along with their synonyms and antonyms. Soon enough Shaonan would no longer be limited by her vocabulary.
Second, in addition to helping build her vocabulary proficiency, Shaonan needed to improve her knowledge of basic and advanced grammar so that she would be able to fully express the words she was learning in meaningful, grammatically correct sentences. As she studied the grammar lessons in her Online TOEFL Course, she was able to learn how to construct simple, compound, and complex sentences. Moreover, she completed hundreds of writing and grammar exercises so that she could reduce the number of errors she was making while she spoke. Eventually, after completing many the grammar lessons in her Online TOEFL Course, Shaonan advanced her grammar proficiency to a level in which she could communicate rather effectively.
Finally, since the ETS TOEFL score report indicated that Shaonan was having difficulty with pronunciation, she began completing the pronunciation lessons in her Online TOEFL Course. And it did not just offer her practice with word stress, intonation, and pausing. She also practiced vowel and consonant sounds, syllable division and grammatical word endings, and sentence rhythm. Different from many Online TOEFL Courses, this course offered two diagnostic pronunciation pre-tests in which Michael Buckhoff–long time TOEFL teacher, English composition, and linguistics professor—told her exactly which areas of her speaking and pronunciation needed improvement. This feedback was much more specific than the feedback from her ETS score report, and now, Shaonan would not just know what her speaking and pronunciation problems were but how to solve them.
Finally, Shaonan used her Online TOEFL Course for a little over three months and successfully solved her vocabulary,grammar, and pronunciation limitations. Then it was time for her to retake the TOEFL exam, and this time to her utter joy, Shaonan scored 24 points on the speaking section. Even though she had not reached her goal of 26 points, she had dramatically improved. It would not be long before she would be able to reach her goal of 26 points.